Wyatt Earp Invades So Cal! Lawmen at O.K. Corral or West Los Angeles? 2023-09-10 16:10

Welcome to the best of California. I'm your host Pat Pattison. Are you ready to discover the old west here in California? Well I was surprised at how much is still all around us. Like this building. It's got a direct connection to white urbaners brothers when they literally invaded California. I'm Pat Pattison and I love California. So an incredible story of the old west in California. I'm here with Dr. David DeHaas who along with Don Chaput wrote this incredible book The Earps Invade Southern California and I love this book. I've read it and David remind viewers who Wyatt Earp is. Okay Wyatt Earp was probably the most famous marshal of the old west. Mainly known in Dodge City he was the marshal in the old cow towns. It's gunfight at the okay corral. Invite the okay crown. Tombstone is where he really his legend really exploded. The thing that's interesting about this story is it turns out he spent much more of his life in Los Angeles. Santa Monica and Malibu and Beverly Hills. Tell me about the old soldier's home which is over on the VA facility. Tell me the origin and how they got involved with that. After the civil war there were a lot of disabled veterans and they you know they were they fought for the country. They had nowhere to go nowhere to live. They couldn't support themselves. They couldn't work anymore so there was a need for homes for these people and the first home was in 1866 after the civil war built for the in Togus, Maine. 1888 ish the soldier's home was built on land that was pretty much donated by John Percival Jones and Robert Baker and Arcadia Bandini to Baker a very famous person. She's known as the godmother of Santa Monica. There's a statue of her at Palisade Parks this day overlooking the pier there. So when did the Earp show up at the who was who was the first Earp to show up? Okay so we skip ahead a little a little bit. About 1901 the first decade of the 20th century is when everything started to happen. The Earp spent nearly a decade in LA and it's funny if you look at every other book on Wyatt they don't even mention it and this was like their biggest part of their life together not even mentioned in every all there's hundreds of biographies on one and rarely a mention. Wyatt Earp in November of 1901 is documented being in LA at the I think the Hollenbeck Hotel and then in June of 1902 Allie Earp all of a sudden is documented being moving from Virgil's and Prescott at the time. Allie Earp his wife comes out to LA and that same month the father Nicholas Earp moves into the old soldier's home. Then early in in 1903 Virgil is there too. So all of a sudden all the brothers the whole family's there Adelia Earp the sister who lived in San Bernardino is nearby and they're all documented showing up in LA and end of 1901 early 1902 stuff starts to happen. Just like any family. My family came out of Oklahoma one half the other half came out of Virginia and then other people start sending letters back east said hey it's pretty nice out here and people start moving. So when tell me a little bit about just in terms of the old soldier's home what what was because I know you mentioned in the book a lot of the kind of the scandals that were happening with people in the pensions and whatnot. Explain a little of that to us. One little step is that Sawtelle as soon as the soldier home opened they're needed all of a sudden now these guys started selling land around the soldier's home so the families you know the soldiers are there but their families wanted to be nearby too. So they start selling Sawtelle the city of Sawtelle developed right next to the and that was fourth street and that's on the cover of our book this fourth street is the famous blind pig where all the illegal stuff was going on. Explain what a blind pig is. Okay all right so a law was passed in 1895 Robert Bull in LA passed a law you couldn't sell liquor within a mile and a half of the soldier's home. So as soon as they made it illegal to be there all these bootlegging operations open and it's really funny. Speakeasies before there were speakeasies and we call our book a Guys and Dolls West Coast style and I don't know you were probably around when the yeah the old play the Broadway musical Guys and Dolls and then the movie with Marlon Brando and Fanks and I was one of my favorite growing up the music's beautiful and because it's exactly the same story. Sky Masterson played by Marlon Brando in the movie was patterned after Bat Masterson Wyatt Earp's good friend and marshal of the old west and there was one story we tell in the book about a barbershop where the guy was a barbershop and he but the police weren't around they had alcohol in the coffee pot so everybody they weren't coming for air cuts as soon as the cops were gone they they were getting drinking coffee from the coffee truck everybody there the gambling tables flipping over yeah and then another funny story in the book that we go into is a guy who used to ride around town on a bicycle and when the police were around he'd you know he's just right on the bike when he ran into one of the old soldiers on the street they would put an order in for him and he would ride his bike down to Santa Monica where alcohol sales were legal and pick up alcohol and then he'd come back and deliver you know when the police weren't looking to drive all around town delivering everybody their their drinks but I at the time 20 22 years ago I had no idea how deep this was and then the thing that got us going is my co-author Don Shopwood he's he's published a ton of books he's a great researcher and he's known as Virgil Earp's biographer he wrote the uh seminal book on uh seminal book on Virgil Earp so when you do that you get a lot of family members writing to you and asking you questions and he got a question from somebody after he wrote the book that he found in a dump site in Goldfield Nevada where is where Virgil died somebody found in the dump site there a token that said VW Earp on one side uh Sawtelle California and then on the other side good for five cents or whatever well VW Earp is Virgil Walter Earp that's White Earp's brother and uh and all of a sudden even though uh Don was Virgil's biographer he didn't know that Virgil really spent a lot of time there we knew that the father was there we knew the brother Newton was there we knew that James occasionally appeared but all of a sudden turns out Virgil was there too and then we looked into further and we found all kinds of documentation that White was there so all the brothers were there it was your Rosetta Stone yeah yeah the first decade of the uh 20th century um they were all there and were the Earps famous back then I mean was the story of Tombstone and White Earp I mean would they be I mean I noticed some of the White Earp's coverage is in the newspaper I mean were they pretty famous the Earps were known around the west back when they were alive back when the um yeah it wasn't when the book came out in 1903 the books came out in the 1930s and when the movies came out in 1930 mid 1930s and so that's our look at the Earps Invade Southern California get the book thank you Dr. David DeHaas are you ready for a more creative and fulfilling second act I know I was so I wrote a book about it created you turn nine steps to your new creative life and career that outlines my journey of leaving corporate America at age 55 to become a TV host actor and a senior model it's an easy to follow plan that can get you where you want to go creative you turn it's available on Amazon Barnes and Noble Balboa Press and other places or go to my website patpatterson.net and sign up for our free monthly workshops based on the book so join me make your creative you turn now order your book today and join Pat Patterson by registering at patpatterson.net for his free monthly workshop so the secret behind the old soldier's chapel it's two churches it's got a big wall down the middle Catholic on one side Protestant on the other they could hold services at the same time and not hear each other Wyatt Earp's father's memorial was held here when he was a resident of the bigger old soldier's home that used to be here on this facility now it's the modern VA incredible facility and the national cemetery all part of our old west legacy here in California you got to look for it and we got to save this building I'm Pat Patterson see you next time and that's this episode remember to like us on Facebook subscribe to our YouTube channel and tell us why you're the best of California and we'll come cover you see you next time wasn't that an incredible adventure around the Golden State keep watching for more episodes of Pat Patterson's Best of California we visit unique food hot spots restaurants and shopping places I'll visit California's natural wonders recommend spectacular camping hiking surfing and kayaking spots as well as local state and national parks so join us on our next adventure of Pat Patterson's Best of California